Amanda Galtman, whose book on the XSpec testing framework will be published by XML Press this winter, will be presenting a tutorial at Declarative Amsterdam 2026 (November 12-13, 2026). Declarative Amsterdam is an annual conference focusing on the technologies and methods used for declarative programming and declarative data.
Amanda’s talk, titled Introduction to XSpec, will be held on Thursday, November 12 2026 at 3pm CET (2pm GMT). Here is the abstract for her tutorial:
This tutorial will introduce you to XSpec, the open-source framework for testing XSLT, XQuery, Schematron, and XProc. As an attendee, you should have experience with at least one of the 4 supported languages, but you do not need prior experience with XSpec.
In this tutorial, I’ll explain what XSpec is and why one might want to use it. I’ll show how to run an XSpec test at the command line or in Oxygen XML Editor, enabling you to follow along with demos and do exercises. After describing the language-independent high-level procedure for writing tests, I’ll construct example tests for all 4 supported languages. These example demonstrations will include ways to express your data/documents to use during testing, multiple ways to express what you want the test to verify, and how to interpret the test report. A few short exercises will enable you to practice, hands on.
Amanda Galtman, whose book on the XSpec testing framework will be published by XML Press this fall, will be presenting at this year’s Balisage conference (August 3-7, 2026). Balisage brings together pretty much every serious markup expert in the world. After 18 years, this will be the last Balisage conference, but they are going out with a strong program that includes XML Press author Amanda Galtman.
Amanda’s talk, titled XSpec for XProc, and XProc for XSLT, will be held on Monday, August 3 2026 at 2pm EDT (6pm GMT). Here is the abstract for her talk:
“XProc 3 is an actively developed pipeline language that excels at processing documents. XSpec is an automated testing framework that supports testing code written in XSLT, XQuery, and Schematron—and now XProc as well. This paper demonstrates a test suite for XProc using the XSpec vocabulary. We’ll also see a little of how the XSLT and XProc processors work together, as the test execution process jumps from XSLT to XProc and back. A feature of XML Calabash (and upcoming in MorganaXProc-III) enables XSpec to invoke the behavior of an XProc step from an XPath expression. You can use that feature yourself, in your XSpec test suites or in other projects.”
Balisage is all virtual this year, and it is a bargain. $250 for 5 days of talks from the leading experts in the markup world, and you can sign up for individual days if you can’t make it to the full conference. Register at the Balisage registration page.
Schematron 2025 is the latest edition of the Schematron validation language, which checks XML documents against business rules. It extends the validation provided by languages such as Document Type Definitions (DTD), W3C XML Schema, and RELAX NG, giving you the ability to check your XML documents for compliance with rules that can be difficult, if not impossible, to check with the other validation languages.
Schematron 2025: A Language for Validating XML explains the language in detail, including everything you need to know to move from earlier version so Schematron to Schematron 2025, and contains many examples to highlight its features. Anyone who uses Schematron or would like to begin using it will find a wealth of information.
Date: Thursday April 9, 2026, 10:00 PDT, 1:00PM EDT
Join Sarah Johnson, author of Content-First Design and founder and strategic consultant at Content-First Design, as she introduces the content-first double diamond framework—a practical approach for stopping meaning drift before it disrupts your user experience. You’ll learn what meaning drift is, why it happens, and how unchecked misalignment in messaging impacts both customers and teams.
Sarah will walk you through actionable steps to implement a content-first mindset, share real-world case studies of organizations who’ve succeeded with this method, and provide two valuable resources: The Content-first Design Readiness Checklist and 7 Signals Your Organization has Meaning Drift. See how cross-functional collaboration around content leads to stronger, more consistent communication across every touch point.
Women in Technical Communication: From typewriters to touchscreens: a history by the women who did the work
Women have shaped the field of technical communication for over 50 years. Women in Technical Communication presents, in their own words, the stories of the women who pioneered the field and those who are carrying it into the future.
For the first time, the stories of the women who built the profession of technical communication have been brought together. These women helped shape how the world understands technology.
Spanning fifty years of innovation, from typewriters to personal computers to smartphones, these first-hand stories reveal how women in technical communication carved out careers, led change, and defined a field in constant motion.
Told in their own words, this anthology celebrates the pioneers who turned communication into a bridge between people and technology.
As of January 6, 2026, Amazon has restored direct sales of the print edition for most of our books. Be aware that this status has changed several times over the last few months and will likely change again.
Kindle editions are not affected by Amazon’s actions regarding print editions.
The second edition of Sharon Burton and Bonni Graham Gonzalez’s book Engineering Words is now available.
Engineering Words draws on the authors’ extensive experience as technical communicators and teachers of a popular class in technical communication for engineers at the University of California, Riverside, to present a comprehensive introduction to communicating in the business […]
On June 9, 2025, her birthday, Char James-Tanny passed away. She was an early XML Press author (Learning Author-it) and contributor to The Language of Technical Communication, The Language of Content Strategy, and The Language of Learning.
Char was well-known among tech comm specialists for her broad expertise across the full spectrum of technical communication, […]
The LavaCon Conference on Content Strategy will be held Oct 5-8, 2025, in Atlanta Georgia. XML Press authors speaking at LavaCon this year include:
Noz Urbina: Content Strategy Bootcamp (half-day pre-conference workshop with Joy Herbers) Sarah Johnson: Content First Design (full-day pre-conference workshop) Scott Abel: Top Five Ways to Harness the Power of AI Co-Pilots […]
Latest News (The Content Wrangler Content Strategy Book Series,Webinar,XML Press)
Join Alan J Porter, founder and chief of The Content Pool, as he delves into the transformative power of effective storytelling within the realm of content personalization. Discover what makes a story not just good but impactful and how it can be tailored to resonate on a personal level with your audience.
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New from XML Press
“I love the examples you give from both the real world and pop culture” Lee Engfer, editor and writer at Mayo Clinic
“Based on real-life experience, the book is sure to resonate with [corporate communicators] and give them plenty of ideas on how to rethink and hopefully improve their current approach.” Libor Safar, Full review at Multilingual Magazine
Char James-Tanny
On June 9, 2025, her birthday, Char James-Tanny passed away. She was an early XML Press author (Learning Author-it) and contributor to The Language of Technical Communication, The Language of Content Strategy, and The Language of Learning.
Char was well-known among tech comm specialists for her broad expertise across the full spectrum of technical communication, […]